AP Psychology

1. AP Psychology By Simone Watts DEFENSE MECHANISMS

2. Table of Contents • What is a defense mechanism • Repression • Regression • Reaction Formation • Projection • Rationalization • Displacement • Sublimation • Denial

3. What is a defense mechanism? • They help reduce or redirect anxiety • Distort reality • There are 8 common ones • More Info http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/defense_mechanisms.htm

4. Repression • To push away memories, thoughts or feelings that cause anxiety • Underlies all the other defense mechanisms • Freud believed repressed urges seep out in dreams or slips of the tongue

5. Regression • To go to more infantile stages of development • May retreat to the psychosexual stages • Ex. Homesick college students wanting security and comfort

6. Reaction Formation • Making unacceptable impulse look like their opposites • Takes place in the ego • Ex. Changing feelings of hate to feelings of love

7. Projection • Pushing threatening impulses on others • Ex. I hate him “You hate me” • Ex. A thief thinking everyone else is a thief

8. Rationalization • Self-justifying our own actions • To hide from ourselves the real reasons for our action • Ex. Habitual drinkers may say they drink “just to be social”

9. Displacement • Changes sexual and aggressive impulses to more acceptable feelings • Ex. Students upset about a test snapping at a friend • Ex. A child mad their parents kicking the dog

10. Sublimation • Changing unacceptable impulses to acceptable feelings • Socially adaptive • Sign of maturity

11. Denial • When people refuse to believe reality • Rejecting a fact or its seriousness • Ex. Patients denying the seriousness of their illness